EMERSON — One week removed from a disheartening five-set loss to Wynot in the Lewis & Clark Conference finals, Tri County Northeast’s volleyball team wasn’t about to repeat history.
The Wolfpack got out to a 4-0 lead in the fifth set against Cedar Catholic in Tuesday’s finals of the D1-4 subdistrict tournament at Emerson-Hubbard High School, just as they had a week earlier before Wynot rallied to win the set.
Rather than let that happen a second time, Tri County Northeast closed it out, scoring the final five points to claim a 19-25, 25-22, 25-23, 21-25, 15-9 win over perennial D-1 powerhouse Cedar Catholic to advance to Saturday’s district finals with a chance to make it to state for the first time since the Emerson-Hubbard and Allen teams started their co-op four years ago.
Early in the match, it looked like the second-seed Trojans might make quick work of the host Wolfpack.
Cedar Catholic (12-19) got out to a big lead early and took the first set, and led 17-7 in the second before TCNE roared back to life, scoring 18 of the last 23 points of the second set to tie the match.
That momentum carried into the third set, where TCNE led 14-7 before Cedar Catholic came back, taking a 20-18 lead after back-to-back Wolfpack miscues. The top-seeded hosts rallied, however, scoring the final two points on a Cedar service error and an ace serve by Joslyn Mackling to take a 2-1 advantage.
Cedar won a back-and-forth fourth set, breaking a 19-19 tie to force a winner-take-all fifth set that saw the momentum shift from the opening serve.
Senior Kiya Tornez sandwiched two of her match-high 18 kills around a block by 5-foot-5 sophomore setter Allyson Belt to help TCNE build a 4-0 lead that they’d never relinquish.
Cedar mounted several comebacks and got within one point on three different occasions, the last at 10-9. Mackling had three of her 17 kills in the final run, including the game-winner that saw the TCNE bench explode in celebration.
Tri County Northeast awaits the official announcement of who their opponent will be on Saturday. As one of the eight lower seeds left, the Wolfpack will be on the road, with location and game time to be announced later this week by the Nebraska School Activities Association.
Complete game coverage in this week’s Dakota County Star.
